Former police officer Kim Potter was found guilty on two counts of manslaughter by a jury in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After four days of deliberations the jury originally came back with a deadlock. The judge instructed the jury to keep deliberating and try to resolve their differences. The jury came back today and delivered a guilty verdict:
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Jurors on Thursday convicted a suburban Minneapolis police officer of two manslaughter charges in the killing of Daunte Wright, a Black motorist she shot during a traffic stop after she said she confused her gun for her Taser.
The mostly white jury deliberated for about four days before finding former Brooklyn Center officer Kim Potter guilty of first-degree and second-degree manslaughter. Potter, 49, faces about seven years in prison on the most serious count under the state’s sentencing guidelines, but prosecutors said they would seek a longer term.
Potter, who testified that she “didn’t want to hurt anybody,” looked down without showing any visible reaction when the verdicts were read.
Potter, who is white, shot and killed the 20-year-old Wright during an April 11 traffic stop in Brooklyn Center as she and other officers were trying to arrest him on an outstanding warrant for a weapons possession charge. The shooting happened at a time of high tension in the area, with former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin standing trial just miles away for the killing of George Floyd. Potter resigned two days later.
Jurors saw video of the shooting that was captured by police body cameras and dashcams. It showed Potter and an officer she was training, Anthony Luckey, pull over Wright for having expired license plate tags and an air freshener hanging from his rear-view mirror. During the stop, Luckey discovered there was a warrant for Wright’s arrest for not appearing in court on the weapons possession charge, and he, Potter and another officer went to take Wright into custody.
Wright obeyed Luckey’s order to get out of his car, but as Luckey tried to handcuff him, Wright pulled away and got back in. As Luckey held onto Wright, Potter said “I’ll tase ya.” The video then shows Potter holding her gun in her right hand and pointing it at Wright. Again, Potter said, “I’ll tase you,” and then two seconds later: “Taser, Taser, Taser.” One second later, she fired a single bullet into Wright’s chest.
“(Expletive)! I just shot him. … I grabbed the wrong (expletive) gun,” Potter said. A minute later, she said: “I’m going to go to prison.”
In sometimes tearful testimony, Potter told jurors that she was “sorry it happened.” (read more)
The judge in this case was/is really weird.
Was her attorney (police union, no doubt) totally incompetent/
She had a VERY good and experience attorney, Earl Gray (yes). She had a crappy jury.
I followed the trial. Earl Grey and Paul Enge did an excellent job for her. The difference between the State’s case and the Defense’s case was startling. The State did not prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt, but the jury could hear the shouts coming from the courthouse steps and they didn’t want their homes burned to the ground.
I was hoping for a mis trial……….she had a very weak legal team. This is disheartening. I hope she gets minimal time.
Kim Potter did society a favor. The guy she accidentally shot was a predator with no redeeming qualities. He didn’t deserve to live in a civil society.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10329753/Daunte-Wright-victims-tell-violent-past.html.
Some people are just a ‘menace to society’ …
Earl Grey is one of the best lawyers in Minnesota. If I needed an attorney, I would hope I could afford him. Unfortunately, the judge and jury knew what would happen if they did not find her guilty. We no longer have a Constitutional Republic; we do have a democracy and the wolves have decided what’s for lunch.
How does a manslaughter charge stick to a cop who stumbles in the process of arresting a fugitive who is resisting arrest?
There should be a layer of indemnity in place that must be severely scorched through in order for an officer to hang for a sideways struggle during arrest.
Now a days anyone can be a police officer. No disrespect to them but the truth is that they no longer hire the brightest.
Just enough IQ to follow the dictates from the higher ups is enough qualifies them.
Look at the rookie female cop that just got caught stripping on her boss at a police party while they cheered her on. The boss was married to boot.
SMH.
How would you compare the IQ required to be a cop today to the IQ required to join the US Army today?
Why would anyone with a halfway decent IQ be a cop? You would be a fool to do it.
Just don’t join today’s woke/crt/lgbtqlmnopxyz F-ed up military instead of being a cop.
She’s a big girl and was fully aware of the politics in Portland Oregon ,sadly the police in Portland have been an embarrassment and highly ineffective and as useless as the mayor and governor , this is what you get when you have an incompetent police department, not to mention they had this cop training other cops , wow ,
I’m not losing any sleep over this ,
Pssssst, the incident happened in Minneapolis, that’s Minnesota…
Portland, Minnesota, Massachusetts, New York…
What’s the difference?
Spelling
Geography
missing the point, apparently.
Thanks for sorting me out.
My initial reaction to “What’s the difference?” was that Paul is guilty of the Nominalistic fallacy but saw no reason to pursue it when a one word reply would suffice.
A few thousand miles!
Maybe not so much… but it does serve to highlight the fallacy of comment board patrons passing judgement on the IQ of police officers.
Apologies for my crappy comment, no excuse for that 😒
Portland ?
Portland. Portland Cement. Minnesota. 3M Adhesives. I can visualize a possible brain fart wrong turn.
Of course you are not, mainly because you are clueless.
Retired major city cop here. ( 32 years)
Sad, but when in general duties ( patrol) I declined to work with females. They caused numerous complaints and were physically not capable enough to use minimal force, and often escalated a situation.
I got around any potential blow back in saying that my wife would be displeased as I had had a previous indiscretion and my marriage was shaky ( I had not)
It worked a charm..
Still happily married..grandkids, and flipping SJWs the middle finger.
Good for you!
People like you are the reason that every person on the right get painted as sexist or racist. Please take you race baiting Troll comments elsewhere.
If he wasn’t telling the truth then explain how “ Black Lives Matter “ but God forbid anyone shouls say “ White Lives Matter “ or “ All Lives Matter “ because they’ll be demonized as a racist.
Some people don’t care to bow down and succumb to “politically correct “ thinking dictated to them by deranged leftists as you obviously have.
These people want you and your family dead and you’re worried about looking like a wayyyyyciss lol. People like YOU are why we’re in this situation. So, F off
“People like you are the reason that every person on the right get painted as sexist or racist.”
Please explain how Washington, Jefferson, Robert E Lee and Teddy Roosevelt “get painted as sexist or racist” if Pete was not alive to get them traduced.
BTW, Lincoln was not included in the above list. From the little I have read of his letters, he viewed the negro as being inferior to white Europeans.
The reason that “every person on the right get painted as sexist or racist” is because Democrats are liars and smearers and projectors.
“Speaking the truth in love” is the biblical standard.
The goal here is not to destroy those who disagree with you; the object is to patiently correct the one seen to be in error.
All kinds of lives ruined because a 20 year old, who was treated in a non-confrontational and professional manner by the cops, decided to say, “to hell with the law” and run.
You can give all kinds of training to people, but in crunch time, they don’t always perform as they did in practice, as every coach of athletes knows.
It was unintentional and frankly, had she meant to shoot him, I’d have said she did the right thing.
May the jurors who were afraid of BLM and Antifa have to live in their neighborhoods with those groups and no cops.
I have detested the people of MN since they allowed a comic to steal an election. They knew it and did nothing about it.
Marc elias finding ballots in his trunk.. Pathetic! Agree with your assessment to a point, way to many crazed libs here in the cities, Outstate is conservative.
Wait a minute…Roy Cooper’s team also found a “trunkful” of ballots near The People’s Republic of Chapel Hill, North Carolina to win his first term
Stupidity won him his second
“non-confrontational and professional manner.
This incident can hardly be classified as “professional” conduct. It was amateurish and inept.
I’ll put it this way: they didn’t bully the kid. Some cops have an attitude that adds sparks to an already tense situation.
Ironically, if she had meant to shoot him her conduct would have been justified.
“I didn’t know the gun was loaded!” always get you a manslaughter indictment.
Alec Baldwin is going to prove you wrong!
A very appropriate sentence. Accident or no. She had a duty to perform and she failed which resulted in the death of a person in custody.
<A very appropriate sentence.>
How do you know what the sentence is?
He wasn’t in custody, maybe do a little more reading and less commentary on the subject at hand.
It was reckless manslaughter at best, how could she be that reckless, working as a cop for 26 years. The taser is on the other side of the body. There was a cop in front of her handling the guy, why did she even go to that level? It is just odd. I sensed deception all the way through her testimony. The crying was all fake, and man does she have a profane mouth on her. She’s a tough one, not in a good way.
“Custody” in this case meant he was detained. LE has a legal duty to protect detainees.
It seems a farfetched claim when expert testimony made it clear she would have been operating within procedure had she intended to shoot him because of the circumstances. The jury is lawless and you are ok with it.
What duty? You and the Democrats want to judge the police in a hostile situation with violent Black criminals the same as a cardiologist in a patient malpractice. There’s no guarantees when you’re a violent felon resisting arrest!
What? You evidently didn’t read the account of the incident. The driver pulled away as the officer was trying to cuff him.
I can understand going from guilty to not guilty, but I can’t see going from not guilty to guilty with no additional evidence.
Some on the jury decided they wanted to go home for Christmas AND they wanted a home to go to. They could all hear the shouting from the courthouse steps and knew what would happen if they found her not guilty. This incident happened during the George Floyd trial and we all know what happened to the city then.
I think that I would appeal that verdict: she grabbed the wrong pistol. By mistake. You don’t get sent to prison for twenty years for a mistake.
Were I the defense attorney, I’d have brought in film of their beloved Vikings and shown qbs who spend thousands of hours in practice and are top athletes, throw pin-point precise throws during practice, then juxtaposed them with the picks or errant passes they throw when they are in “real life” games.
I’d show film of top corners swatting down passes with ease in practice, then watch them get turned around when they are under game pressure against top pass route runners.
Pressure–the cop feared for the partner’s life–changes everything.
MN won’t stop until they have no cops or cops just never show up.
That 20 year old was headed for high speed chase and he likely would have killed or maimed some innocent motorists.
She had authority to shoot Wright by law with her gun to protect her partner who was in danger of being killed or injured by Wright trying to flee in his car while her partner was partially in it trying to prevent him from putting the car in Drive. The taser doesn’t even matter and was not required to be used. This verdict is an injustice. No sane person would want to be a cop in MN.
And a LOT of other cities across the US. We are getting to the point of only being able to protect and depend on ourselves. I don’t visit urban areas anymore.
I’m a delivery driver, like FedEx but a different company. No, not that one, the other one. I used to run a route in one of the worst places in Dallas; an area called Pleasant Grove, or “The Grove” as the locals call it. There were almost daily reports of shootings in The Grove, many of them in broad daylight.
I am ecstatic that for the last 15 years, I have run rural routes far away from the city. First in East Texas, and now for the last 4 years, I cover North Texas and southern Oklahoma. I load up my van in Dallas in the morning, and then drive over an hour just to get to the beginning of my territory.
And let me tell you, this is Trump MAGA country, through and through. Even in the biggest city in my zone, Gainesville TX, there’s a giant billboard on the main road that proudly displays the message “Let’s Go Brandon!”
I see many Trump t-shirts and hats and other gear, and I always say something about it – “Hey, nice hat!” I love interacting with these people. There’s no artifice about them, no fake anything. And they’re friendly, too. Just the other week, I blew out a tire on my van, with no spare. The guy I just delivered the package to helped me get the tire off, drove me up to the tire store and waited while they put the new tire on the rim, and drove me back and helped me put it back on the van. Total stranger, never saw him before. Try that in Pleasant Grove, liable to get shot.
In my opinion, these people are what America is all about. I am envious of them, from here in the suburb of the big city.
I’m pretty sure those blm activists had a different take a few years ago when that Somalian police officer in Minneapolis shot that white girl from Australia that placed a 911 call over screams she heard coming from her alley.
https://www.rebelnews.com/no_justice_for_justine_damond
Inset photo of judge indicates mongolism, a sign of mental defect. Probably, though, just the camera angle and combination of those high cheekbones, pointed chin, double jointed nose, and primate swell above upper lip.
Or being a mongo is just an occupational requirement for a judge to get a gig in Minneapolis.
I certainly can’t argue with the last part of your comment that begins with “America is now forced“.
This is not a case to get too wrapped around the axle. She had no business in that situation and her reaction afterward shows why. The woman was clearly a diversity hire, had no business carrying a deadly weapon, and writhed on the ground afterward. She made a horrific error that killed someone when there was PLENTY of help around. I saw only a short bit of her testimony. But my goodness, cowboy up, woman!
It’s exactly why we, as a country, should not be putting women in combat roles. No decent country sends women to fight wars; whether it’s overseas or inner cities.
But I will reiterate “hokkoda’s rules for not getting into a violent encounter with law enforcement”
As far as the verdict goes, maybe the silver lining is fewer women go into policing and more municipalities rethink their “diversity hires”.
“[F]ewer women go into policing and more municipalities rethink their ‘diversity hires’.“
Nope. They’re going to double down on stupid.
“Progress!”
GREAT POST from a legitimate, long time Treeper!
She was hired long before diversity hires were a thing. Minnesota was somewhat tolerable and more republican then.
The ‘diversity hire’ was the young black rookie, Officer Luckey, she was training. He had tried at two other police departments before trying a third time in Brooklyn Park (I think that was the name of the area) and he made THREE fatal mistakes. FIRST MISTAKE; he did NOT tell the perp to turn off his engine when he told him to get out of the car. SECOND MISTAKE; he did not close the car door. THIRD MISTAKE; he did not take the thug to the back of the car to handcuff him. And how does a big, strong, male cop not manage to subdue a scrawny, little a#*h&t anyway?
There will be an appeal. After the unjust verdict was read her attorney said there was information that did not come out at trial. Evidently, something may have happened or they learned something after the closing arguments were done. Too bad the PSI (pre-sentencing investigation) will only be done on Kim Potter.
This is what happens when you get away from the Bible and God society is turned upside down. We live in a two justice society where the innocent are prosecuted and a guilty are let go. It is not a black or white issue it is a moral issue.
If it doesn’t fit you must acquit -guess not- now let’s talk Baldwin how’s his Christmas
I am shocked he is still parading himself around New York. Rules for thee….
Only Anitifa and BLM will become police in these cities. I think that’s the plan, the left got DAs in to subvert law enforcement, now takeover law enforcement.
yeah, I been seein’ that likely outcome for years
once a city goes that way, you better pick a safer ethnic enclave to live in, whitey
I had a thought today as I listened to that…individual in charge of Chicago, bleating about her need for federal “agents” in Chicago. “Send ’em in! Send in a bunch!”
And I thought, what if that’s their plan? Load up these trouble spot cities with Federal, ahem, “agents,” and then bang! Flip that martial law switch.
They’ve proven again and again that there’s no low that’s too low. I wouldn’t put it past them.
but in all fairness it was only a misdemeanor stop-the kid needn’t be killed over it
I have very little sympathy for the officer. Her behavior writhing around on the ground, screaming, and wailing afterward was appalling. She had no business being in possession of a deadly weapon.
Being stupid should hurt.
The kid shouldn’t have done what he did, but we live in a world where people like that behave like wild animals and you never know when they’re just gonna snap. All he had to do was repeat two words over and over again until he was over: “Yes sir.”
The kid is the one that made the decision to escalate.
yes
he wasn’t “killed over a misdemeanor” – that’s sophistry of the highest order
he was killed in a violent struggle with police that HE instigated by trying to jackrabbit
and accidentally, if you believe the officer’s testimony
To listen to our corrupt dem. Atty.Gen. this punk was destined for saint hood, My god, How can the top state law enforcer be so twisted, Oh I forgot he was the same clown who was trying to lead the DFl losing to the other pissant. How he was elected only the vote counters know. I feel for the Officer who was hung out to dry and the city which after Ellison’s speech will lose millions in a lawsuit.. Minnesota is lost and until they start voting for adults with morals nothing will change. Lived here 66 years and am beyond disgusted with the whole machine from Walz done. God help the Police in our cities..
This is the photo they keep showing of him. It’s like it was Photoshopped by the NAACP or Sharpton’s NAN. Daddy with his bastard offspring.
The Chicago cap is a tell.
These type photos are manipulative. You can find such photos for everyone on death row. Has nothing to do with his actions that day. Or his violent criminal background.
Double tragedy.
First. Potter should’ve never pulled a Taser. Just no excuse. In fact, she should’ve never been involved because it’s clear from the vid she wasn’t competent to operate at the level required to arrest/subdue this level of criminal.
Second. Duante Wright was a punk with a history of gun violence. If he’d complied he’d be alive as I type this. He escalated the situation by breaking away from the police, leading to his death at the hands of a police officer lacking the competence to deal with the breakaway.
In the old days, 60s and 70s, a beefy cop would’ve dragged the kid from the car by his ear, hair, shirt, arm, hand, or any combination of same. His partner would’ve helped and together they’d cuff the kid. No one would be dead and no one going to jail except the criminal.
Duante Wright shot Caleb Livingston in the head, May 2019, according to court filings. Caleb’s brain injured, requires 24/7/365 care. Two days prior, Caleb and Wright got into a fight. Caleb’s mom thinks Caleb got the best of Wright. Wright was never charged with the shooting. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10329753/Daunte-Wright-victims-tell-violent-past.html
no justice here… just black privilege on parade.
This is what happens when you have a terrorist organization ready to go after jurors. They already went after the judge that was bought in from elsewhere.
“Several officers, and the defense’s use-of-force expert, testified that Potter would have been fully justified in shooting Wright in order to protect the other officer from being dragged by the car.”
you had a thug who had warrants, tried to run dragging a cop with him and who had chocked a girl with a gun to her head and he gets the benifit of doubt. the officer did the world a favor, people have to decide if the public is even worth protecting.
Well, not worth protecting in the Twin Cities.
The skinnys own Minneapolis and the lgbtqs own St. Paul.
As Robert Barnes said the other night, MLK would’ve had a better chance at a fair trial in Birmingham than a white cop has of getting one in an inner city urban area today.
What most will miss completely and the blacks will overlook is that whether it was negligence, a brain fart or even intentional, she most probably saved a few black lives by killing him before his future came to pass.
The same applies to most police shootings of blacks.
And no staride, I’m not a raciss or a sexiss.
I go by the DOJ statistics on what group commits the most murders and what groups die from murders and what groups most often try to murders LEO’s.
If even 10% of the population would have actually expended the effort to look at the real statistics, we wouldn’t have most of the population believing everything the media now says.
Well they had to change the definition of retarded because of blacks average double digit IQ. So have fun with that.
only a fool would be police in this country.
Disgusting… an accident due to a thug… and her life is destroyed. Just enough of this BullSchitt.
Spot on.
Thanks officer for the taxpayer-relief shot.
Hopefully your sentence will be reasonable.
Lesson: Black neighborhoods will only tolerate black cops. Risking prison to stop crime in these neighborhoods is a perilous legal minefield for white people. Fund or defund, this verdict is why the police are letting crime go unchecked. And who can blame them.
Good black cops are not tolerated either.
“Black neighborhoods will only tolerate black cops”
True for the purpose you mean, but not an absolute
I think it was after the “gentle giant” (Mike Brown?) that assaulted the policeman thru the window of his cruiser and left DNA
That Christmas in Seattle or somewhere they were lighting the municipal Christmas tree and there mighta been a small ‘peaceful’ protest
As it dispersed, there was video of a black policeman walking down the street away from the scene, and a loud-mouthed black woman was walking at his side and was in his ear
“What wrong with you? You a Uncle Tom? You black or not?”
So while it’s true they won’t tolerate white cops anymore
It’s not an axiom that they’ll tolerate black cops
For some, it’s not exactly that they want to be policed by their own kind
It’s that they don’t want to be policed at all
“It’s that they don’t want to be policed at all”
I’m glad that there’s someone else that understands this.
I learned it a long time ago.
Amen, Auntie
Am I the only one here happy over this decision?
We got an incompetent cop off the street and a thug off this planet.
PLUSS++++ This ruling of manslaughter will not help Alec Baldwin in the court of public opinion. lol
You might be….I’m never happy with a bad verdict.
The one incompetent in this incident was the black cop she was training. He failed to have the driver turn off his engine when he asked him to step out of the car; he failed to close the car door and worst of all, he failed to move him to the back of the car to perform the handcuffing. Officer Luckey should never be hired as a police officer. This was his third attempt at being a police officer and he caused the death of a dangerous thug and a good cop’s life is ruined b/c of him.
Another victim criminal whose name will be memorialized on murals. But real victims of crime, no one knows their name.
“We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.”
If we as a society keep treating our protectors as criminals we may someday lose their protection and have to fend for ourselves.
When the sheep dogs decide to pack it in the sheep won’t be any safer.
By her actions, Officer Potter made her community safer, likely keeping hundreds of future crimes from being committed.. I’m sorry she will be suffering in prison for it.
Her defense team’s approach was horrible. They did not come out with the attitude she was innocent, but rather appeared defeated from the outset. And Potter’s testimony was horrendous; she too portrayed she was guilty. Just horrible. She needs new council!
Guess you didn’t watch the same trial I did.
America on socialism, ain’t it great?
Wright was a career criminal, by the age of 20. I feel bad for her, for grabbing the wrong instrument to take this guy into custody.
They had absolutely no choice, but to arrest him. I think there were at least 2 warrants out for his arrest. One was for failure to appear on weapons charges.
Thank you for taking out the trash, Mam.
“ The judge in this case was/is really weird.”
Please explain.
Kim Potter, you poor women; God, I petition you to assist her and if I might be so bold us as well.
add the comma please so I don’t get hit over the head with a clacker.
If I was on the jury, I would have looked at the case this way….the black “victim” did everything wrong intentionally. From driving with an expired tag, for having an arrest warrant, to fighting with the cops, to running from the cops. The cop did one thing accidentally. And her accidental action was the result of the victim’s intentional criminal behavior. And for that she goes to prison and her life is ruined. I would NOT have convicted.
good shoot in the first place, regardless of the weapon
I mostly agree but mistakes should be accounted, too.
In more sane times she would be put on a desk, retrained, fined, suspended and/or fired.
The jury were afraid of the BLM mob
The prosecution, I heard on TV, is not happy with the standard punishment number of years. They already said that they will go and try to get the judge to go beyond the law’s sentencing requirement. That’s Ellison for ya….AND, in MN? If Ellison can’t get “100 years” (just exaggerating–more than what is required) there will be cause for a BLM riot ’cause that’s what these people do……
And the sentence of 12.5 years for Mohammed Noor, a black muslim officer, who shot Justine Diamond, a white female 911 caller, just had his sentence reduced to 47 months. That was NOT a justified shooting, Kim Potter’s was justified and the prosecution wants a more than maximum sentence? Go figure.